Andy Walker / Android Authority
If Microsoft Lens were a coin, I’d likely find it lurking between the couch cushions. It’s one of those apps that I forgot was installed on my device, but I was always glad to see it whenever I needed to scan receipts, invoices, menus, random documents, or business cards, extract their text, and convert the result into my preferred file type.
Unfortunately, we can’t have nice things. So, as it was one of Redmond’s most functional and reliable Android apps, Lens had to be merged into something else. The app’s functionality will be integrated into Copilot in the coming months, leaving those who relied on it without a dedicated scanning platform. Naturally, I turned to various forums to find an alternative before the inevitable; one name that popped up as a free option was PDFgear Scan.
According to its Play Store listing, the app claims to be the “next-generation mobile scanning app that leverages AI to make document processing faster, smarter, and easier. ” But is that all hot air, or is it a viable Microsoft Lens alternative? I gave it a spin to find out.
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Function over form
Andy Walker / Android Authority
Well, the early signs are good. While Microsoft Lens greets new users with a mildly annoying welcome screen, PDFgear Scan jumps into its core functionality. There’s no wizard or startup guide, so newcomers might feel lost if they haven’t encountered a PDF scanner app. However, experienced Lens users will appreciate the straightforward introduction.
The OCR performance and accuracy is great considering I put Scan through several challenging scenarios.
Once you reach the home screen, you’ll find that PDFgear Scan offers a fair number of scan modes, organization features, and more. It relies on a bottom bar for primary navigation, with shortcuts to the home page, stored files, scanning tools, and the settings menu. If you’re looking for a highly customizable experience, Scan will leave you wanting. The settings menu is as basic as apps come, allowing changes to the app’s theme and language — that’s about it. I would’ve liked to see more options for adjusting scan quality, file save size limits or ideals, naming conventions, and preferred save directory for scans. Perhaps these are considerations for a future version.
Andy Walker / Android Authority
Nevertheless, how is the scanning experience? I wanted to challenge it, so I prepared a left-field task. I opened an Android Authority article on a secondary phone and scanned it with my main device. While the shot wasn’t the highest quality, it was legible enough for the app’s OCR engine, which nailed every word. This is particularly impressive given that the site’s dark mode was active. It handled other documents, like a small banana bread recipe card, without a hitch.
This extracted text can be garnered from almost any scanned document and exported to a text file stored alongside the scan itself or to a Word-ready DOCX file. As an app that talks big about its AI smarts, I would’ve liked to see some basic formatting options to help create a slightly more legible Word document, but at least the exporting option is available.
A dream solution for receipt tracking
Andy Walker / Android Authority
You likely won’t be scanning content on phone screens every day, though, so what else does PDFgear Scan it support? The app happily snaps the front and rear pages of IDs, opened books, single-page documents, and receipts. The latter is where this app excels.
Scan a receipt, let the app process the text, and automatically highlight and save key data, including the total in the represented currency, tax amount, and merchant. It also identifies the number of items and offers a user-written description field. For checks and balances, users can also verify or change the detected info for more accuracy. Still, I didn’t need to alter anything — the app was error-free across several crumpled slips. For particularly lengthy shopping sprees, the app also has extended screenshot support.
Tracking receipts is the best way to use PDFgear Scan, even with Microsoft Lens in the mix.
Interestingly, the receipts section also has search functionality with filters and dates, allowing you to separate your camping gear purchases from your Starbucks binges or tax-deductible products from your groceries. Tracking receipts is the best way to use PDFgear Scan, even with Microsoft Lens in the mix.
Andy Walker / Android Authority
What about PDF modifications? Scan isn’t as feature-rich as Adobe’s products in this regard, but it does support the creation and insertion of signatures. Adjusting scans is also an accessible task. Tapping the Edit button on the scan preview screen opens up a variety of available tweaks, from a cropping tool to various filters. It’s here where you can tail additional scans onto an existing snap — useful for organization or creating a single PDF from multiple single-page documents.
Annoyingly, receipts edited after you’ve scanned them are no longer recognized as receipts, nor do they replace the original file in the receipts section. This feels like an oversight and is bound to add clutter and cause confusion. Again, this is another thing that could easily be fixed in a future update.
AI, or glorified document search?
Finally, I should probably touch on that mention of AI, right? PDFgear Scan’s trump card is a built-in chatbot that answers questions about scanned documents. Is it nifty? Sure. Is it necessary? No. However, I can see how it could be useful to some users. For much longer scanned documents or receipts, the tool can readily pull up data you might not want to comb through. This could include a definition in a textbook scan or the name of the barista who made your mocha. However, this being generative AI, it’s not without its flaws.
Generative AI doesn't need to be everywhere, least of all in a PDF scanner app.
Using a scan of an older receipt, I asked the tool if I could still refund the products I bought on May 4, 2025. It answered: “You can still refund your purchase, as the policy states that the last day for a full refund is 03/07/2025 [ed: July 3, 2025], except for sale items.” While it sourced dates as stated on the slip, it didn’t acknowledge that I asked the question well after the refund date.
It also slightly misinterpreted a preceding question. One of its suggested questions thought that the transaction was performed in April, but it was, in fact, in early May. It conflated the return date with the purchase date — that’s quite a silly error.
Look, it can call out basic details. If I wanted to check how much tax was added to my coffee order, the AI feature could do that. However, I wouldn’t trust it with anything mission-critical.
Is PDFgear Scan the best Microsoft Lens replacement?
Andy Walker / Android Authority
Overall, PDFgear Scan gets many things right, from its straightforward, no-nonsense UI to its various scanning options. The OCR is excellent, and I appreciate the option to send extracted text to Word documents. In some cases, it even bests Lens, with its brilliant receipt archival functionality. However, it falls short of Microsoft’s product for those who utilize the scanned text in other specialized apps.
Want to extract content from a textbook to create a PowerPoint slide? Lens can do that. Want to save it in OneNote to add to your personal knowledge base? Sure. Want to save it to multiple services or files? Yes again. Lens offers more specialized scan options, including printed tables, business cards, and a whiteboard mode.
But with Lens functionality being locked behind 365 starting this September, PDFgear Scan does have the advantage of being a free option that doesn’t require additional logins and potentially paywalls. I’ll stick with Microsoft Lens until Redmond rips it from me, but after that, apps like PDFgear Scan, OSS Document Scanner, Adobe Scan, and TurboScan will need to fill that gap.
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